Ryanair cancels 30 flights as pilots strike in Ireland

Ryanair is facing its first day of industrial action in Ireland since the airline bowed to pressure from staff and recognised trades unions.

The budget airline has cancelled 30 flights on Thursday after the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association voted to strike last week.

Only flights between Ireland and the UK are affected.

However, Ryanair is facing further strikes in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium later in the summer.

The airline has apologised for the “regrettable disruptions”, saying it was trying to minimise the strike’s impact on people travelling to Portugal, France, Spain, Italy and Greece.

The cancellations are all on high frequency routes between Ireland and UK destinations including London, where passengers can easily switch to alternative flights.

The Irish pilots’ concerns relate to pay and conditions including a dispute over seniority, as well as the procedures for allocation of base transfers, promotions and annual leave.

Last autumn, Ryanair was forced to cancel hundreds of flights after rostering failures left the airline with insufficient crew. At the time staff made it clear they were unhappy about their working conditions.

Image copyrightReuters

Despite a history of hostility towards unions, the airline eventually agreed to recognise them in December.

This year the airline has suffered some minor industrial action in Germany and Portugal, but unions are gearing up for a series of strikes that could affect routes across the continent.

Related Articles

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Coca-Cola is a sponsor of the World Cup Drinks giant Coca-Cola has agreed its biggest UK sponsorship deal by becoming Premier League football’s seventh and final commercial partner. It will become the official soft drink partner of the league, joining other sponsors Barclays, Carling, Cadbury, Nike, Tag Heuer and […]

Media caption“The export market is very important to our organisation,” says cattle rancher Coleman Locke “Tremendously important” is how rancher Coleman Locke describes the role of international trade to his cattle business. The 72-year-old has worked on his family’s 10,000-acre ranch on the Gulf Coast of Texas for his whole life and has seen his […]

Image copyright Getty Images UK companies with 250 or more employees must publish their gender pay gap data by April 2018. About 9,000 firms will have to calculate their gender pay gap and publish it on a government website by 4 April 2018, or 30 March for the public sector. With big companies revealing their […]